controller support

Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap is a remake of the 1989 Master System platformer Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap. The developer Lizardcube has announced that the title will be coming to Android on May 30th. Once the game is launched, you'll be able to pick it up for $8.99, though if you'd like to save 30% off the retail price, you can pre-register on the Play Store to receive that discount.

Before today one of the playerbase's most wanted features for the mobile version of Fortnite was controller support. Well, it looks like the developers have been listening to the fans as the 7.30 update released today finally adds in support for bluetooth controllers, such as the Steelseries Stratus XL, Gamevice, Xbox One, Razer Raiju, and Moto Gamepad. And if the inclusion of this controller support isn't enough to float your boat, maybe the addition of 60Hz support for select Android models will pique your interest.

Teslagrad was announced for Android back in September. At the time it was only available on the Play Store for pre-registration, and a release date was unknown. As of today the indie 2D Metroidvania is available for purchase. You can snag a copy right now for $4.89, which is a 30% discount off the planned retail price.

It would appear that TAITO Corporation has not completely forgotten about us Android users when it comes to a mobile version of RAYSTORM. Seeing that iOS received theirs all the way back in 2012, it almost appeared as though we would never see the port. But lo and behold, RAYSTORM has officially been released on the Play Store, and it is just as great as it was on the PS1.

No matter how you slice and dice it, bread is awesome. And being bread, that's probably the dream, nay, the Holy Grain. Well, at least if you loaf bread as much as I do. See, I never knew I kneaded a game like this, but now that I know it exists, I can't wait to play it.

In "I am Bread," you control a slice of bread that's just doughing its best to survive the unsavory obstacles in its way.

The last ten years of indie games have been all about reconnecting with a simpler, more focused era of the medium. Retro City Rampage DX does a bit of that - "Retro" is in the title as a bit of a heavy hint - but it also brings some of the more streamlined gameplay elements and storytelling from modern games into the format. Retro City Rampage hit Steam in 2014 to excellent reviews, and now it's available on the Play Store for five bucks with no in-app purchases.

It's not often that we see an Android game released just for Android TV, aside from the various exclusives that NVIDIA has acquired for its SHIELD set-top box. Hotlap Heroes eschews smartphones and tablets and insists that players experience its old-fashioned racing action on a full-sized television. The 3D racing game, a rookie effort on the Play Store from developer Team Pea, is $3.99 with no in-app purchases.

You can't swing a severed limb around on the Play Store without hitting half a dozen zombie games, and first person shooters (even high-end variants like Unkilled) aren't exactly thin on the ground. But you might want to give Dead Effect 2, the sequel to a 2013 science fiction-horror shooter, a second look anyway. While the premise isn't exactly original, falling somewhere between Alien and Dead Space, the sheer variety and polish makes it worth consideration from Android gamers.

First of all, the game seems to have a much tighter focus on storytelling than other zombie shooters. You pick up right where the last game left off, on a derelict spaceship crawling with undead crewmembers and other, more elaborate monsters - think Doom 3 with iron sights.

Look, I've got nothing against the pixelated graphical style, sometimes erroneously referred to as "8-bit." But for the last few years it's often been used as a crutch for developers who can't be bothered to make truly good 2D graphics. That doesn't apply to Sword of Xolan, the latest game from developer Alper Sarikaya of Manuganu fame. The environments, enemies, and main character have enough definition that you can actually see what's happening on screen, and the excellent animations make the world come to life in ways that developers could only dream of back in the old SNES days.

Update: the developers released another quick update on September 19th, explicitly supporting the MOGA family of controllers. The NES30 mentioned below, a generic Bluetooth HID controller, is also working. Well done, Noodlecake and RocketCat!

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I've been playing the heck out of Noodlecake and RocketCat's Wayward Souls RPG-roguelike ever since it landed on Android. While the top-down action game does have some excellent touchscreen controls, there's just no substitute for a real gamepad. That being the case, the developers have issued an update that adds controller support. Now you can slash, stab, and zap your enemies with clicky abandon, until they inevitably surround and kill you on the second floor.